Current weather

The best projects are community projects

It’s the people who live here that make our communities special, and a pair of grand unveilings last weekend serve to prove the point.

Last Saturday, there was a ribbon cutting at the Nikiski Recreation Center to dedicate the new community-built playground there. Also Saturday, an inaugural tournament was held to christen the new disc golf course at Tsalteshi Trails.

“It’s things like this that make us a community,” said Rep. Mike Chenault of Nikiski in remarks during the Nikiski playground ribbon cutting. “It gives us a reason to live here.”

Some of the funding for the playground came from state grants, the rest was raised by the community, and volunteers were instrumental in construction of the project. The end result is a playground which reflects the community, and a project in which the community can take great pride.

Over in Soldotna, the River City Rotaract Club, a service organization for younger Rotarians, sponsored the inaugural Salmon Toss Disc Golf Tournament at the new course on Tsalteshi Trails. Twenty-five players participated in the tournament; even more have given the course a try this spring. Rotaract raised the funds to install the signs and baskets; the effort to further refine the course will continue.

Rotaract co-president Stephanie Musgrove told the Clarion that she was proud of the results, and that the course was “a really big project for our club size.”

The River City course is Soldotna’s first disc golf course. If it follows the trend of the disc golf courses in Kenai, it will get plenty of use. And again, it is a project of which the community can be proud.

The most vibrant communities are the ones in which members are willing to step up and contribute to projects for all to enjoy. We’re glad we live in that kind of community here on the Kenai Peninsula.